Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
Interpretation
Hobbes implies that in the context of war, power and deceit are essential strategies for success.
In this quote, Hobbes argues that the harsh realities of war necessitate the use of force and deception as fundamental principles. These two 'cardinal virtues' reflect a pragmatic view of human nature and the necessity for survival in a conflict-ridden environment, suggesting that ethical considerations may be set aside in favor of victory and dominance.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about military strategy or ethics in warfare.
Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God, that is to say, into Eternal life, that is to say, to Remission of Sin. For as Eternal life was lost by the committing, so it is recovered by the remitting of men's sins.
For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.
For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.
Scientia potentia est, sed parva; quia scientia egregia rara est, nec proinde apparens nisi paucissimis, et in paucis rebus. Scientiae enim ea natura est, ut esse intelligi non possit, nisi ab illis qui sunt scientia praediti.
The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.
War is America's central liturgical act necessary to renew our sense that we are a nation unlike other nations.
There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.
At a period when Literature was wont to attribute the grief of living exclusively to the mischances of disappointed love or the jealousy of adulterous deceptions, he had said not a word of these childish maladies, but had sounded those more incurable, more poignant and more profound: wounds that are inflicted by satiety, disillusion and contempt in ruined souls tortured by the present, disgusted with the past, terrified and desperate of the future.
Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who you are, or cares.
Sometimes, when I hear people without experience of addiction blame addicts for their behaviour, I feel like saying to them: 'You simply don't understand - how can a child be held responsible for doing such a dreadful thing to himself?' But then again, at other times I have to acknowledge: it was done wilfully.
There seem to me a great many blessings which come from true poverty and I should be sorry to be deprived of them.
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